Why is there no lightning and thunder during the cold period

Thunderstorms need convective instability large enough to separate charge in the clouds. A couple hundred Joules per kilogram of Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) can do it. Moisture is the biggest contributor to CAPE. In the warm season, the absolute amount of moisture in the atmosphere is generally about 10 times higher than in winter due to warmer air being able to hold more moisture. If you’re near the Gulf of Mexico, thunderstorms aren’t so rare during the winter because sufficient moisture is nearby and the air doesn’t stay particularly cold for long periods of time.

Convective instability does exist sometimes in snowstorms, but it is within an elevated layer and the CAPE is rarely more than a couple hundred J/kg. It’s less clear how charge separation for lightning works in a snowstorm given the lack of graupel and hail to accumulate negative charge, but large snowflakes could carry the negative charge while ice crystals from broken snowflakes and from the freezing of supercooled water carry the positive charge.

>>9083434
How come there are a lot of thunderstorms in places like Nebraska where there aren't any large bodies of water nearby?

>>9083436
It's not like Nebraska is a desert. There's plenty of moisture in the air.

>>9083436
>How come there are a lot of thunderstorms in places like Nebraska where there aren't any large bodies of water nearby?

Because being near a large body of water is not necessary for anything the other Anon listed in >>9083434

>>9083457
>>9083458
Where do you get sufficient moisture if not from big bodies of water?

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>>9083436
Nebraska has very little rain compared to the rest of the US, but when it does get wet air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico it's going to be riding warm air currents and it gets pretty hot in summer in Nebraska. So you have someplace hot (hotter air = higher dew point = higher possible humidity) with moister and that's a recipe for thunder

Still though compared to some other places Nebraska doesn't have many thunderstorms.

Of the top 10 major cities in the US with the most thunderstorms per year, the top 4 are all in florida, followed by Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, two cities in Tennessee, and then Missouri. All cities right near the Gulf of Mexico.

>>9083462
There's this new thing all the kids are talking about called "wind." It moves air from one are to another.

Or are you really arguing that there is no rain in Nebraska?

>>9083495
So why doesn't "wind" move such air into Arizona, genius?

>>9083547
i wouldn't go to arizona either i don't blame the wind tbqh

>>9083547
------ troll line established -------

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>>9083547
Rocky mountains block the wind like a giant wall.

Compare this height map to the precipitation map above and note that the moist air from the Gulf stops abruptly once it runs into the Rocky Mountains.

There are a few areas of increased rain right at the edge of the mountains because the last few remaining clouds get "stuck" there and build up a bit

>>9083567
>Compare this height map to the precipitation map above and note that the moist air from the Gulf stops abruptly once it runs into the Rocky Mountains.
>There are a few areas of increased rain right at the edge of the mountains because the last few remaining clouds get "stuck" there and build up a bit

Air masses do cross mountains, but to do so, they have to go, you know, up. As air goes up, it becomes more rarified, ad more rarified air can hold less moisture. So the moisture rains out. When the air comes down the other side, its density goes back up -- it could hold relatively more water, but that water rained out crossing the mountains, so the air is more desiccated than it was before crossing the mountains.

>>9083567
This is interesting. What about wind from the west? What blocks that?

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>>9083596
Look at the height map. The area of increased height around the rocky mountains extends all the way from almost the coast line on the Pacific, with the Cascade mountain range and the Sierra Nevada range. For an extreme example, scroll up to the precipitation map again and take a look at Washington State. In just a few hundred miles, it goes from the MOST rainy part of the country to nearly the LEAST rainy part of the country. That's from the wind of the pacific ocean hitting an abrupt halt at the Cascade Mountains.

As for your specific example of Arizonian, it's placed between two mountain ranges (Sierra Nevada and Rockies) and is otherwise landlocked, so it ends up extremely dry. The only way for moister to reach it is to go over mountains.

>>9083609
So deserts form when there's open land surrounded by mountains?

>>9083232
>OP doesn't know about thunder snow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJt4nV6hM1Y

>>9083434
it's refreshing to see quality posts. thank you, anon.

>>9083232
>>9083434
There certainly is thunder snow. We even got some in our area this past winter. But like you said, it's not impressive. It's just rare enough to get excited about when it happens.

>>9083609
Hmm. Oregon is the perfect place to survive the apocalypse. Somewhere upriver in the hills. Defensible and lightly populated yet also close enough to sea trade and with good agricultural land so civilization can be restored quickly.

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There is a thing called "thundersnow"